You better recognize

I got an award at work today from the commanding general of Fort Benning. He is retiring next week and he said he wanted to recognize me before he left. For those who don't know, I'm the speechwriter for him and his staff (about five people total). The award is pretty cool. It's a framed two-star note and a commander's coin. The problem is, the walls of my office are concrete, so I can't hang it just yet. We're moving out of the building in April so it can be renovated. Hopefully our new office space has plaster walls.

Here an up close shot of the 2-star note...

Airborne!

Fort Benning is the home of several schools and courses, one of which is Airborne School. It's the only airborne school in the entire military and all of the different branches come here to become airborne qualified. The 3-week-long course is divided into three different phases. The first week is called ground week, all training is done on the ground. The second week is called tower week, the students jump off of the 34-foot towers and the 250-foot towers. The third and final week is called jump week, during which they must complete five jumps out of an airplane before they earn their jump wings.

Today I got the opportunity to participate in tower week (well part of it). I led a tour group around post and one of the activities was the 34-foot tower. It was way fun, but it was also way high! Here are a few pictures from my experience:

This is the 34-foot tower. You jump out of the door and zip-line down to the bottom.

Here I am in my harness and ready to go...

Arms crossed and about to jump...

Sliding down! My feet are up because you have to go over a hill and the Soldiers yell at you to keep your feet up.

Receiving my jump wings...

And just 'cause she's cute, here is Lauren this morning all bundled up and ready for daycare...

And here she is feeding puppy a bone before we leave. She loves to help and she especially loves when Lil' Jon gives her attention.

Lauren's Second Halloween

Last year on Halloween Lauren crawled for the first time. This year we didn't hit any developmental milestones, but we did get some cute pictures. We started out the season by purchasing a plastic pumpkin at Target and the next day she learned to say "punkin."

Since she seemed rather fascinated with the word I decided it would be fun to take her to a pumpkin patch (to me "fun" means great pictures). So the next time we were in Birmingham we visited Old Baker Farm and found not only a pumpkin patch, but also the 10th annual cotton pickin' festival. Lauren loved all of the animals.




After visiting the animals, we rode a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch, where the pickings were slim because it was late in the day.





Last year around Halloween I set-up a cute fall scene in the backyard and placed my immobile 8-month-old in the middle of it. She did perfect. THIS year, my uncooperative 20-month-old decided she would rather take off her shoes...

...and pick-up every stick or twig in the backyard.

At least one member of my family always poses and loves having his picture taken...

Okay, so this one turned out cute too.

Here is Bebe all dressed and ready for her daycare party, where she was excited to have "cacakes," "sheos" and "setzels." For those who don't speak Lauren she told me about cupcakes, cheetos and pretzels.

As is our Gordon family tradition we had chili for dinner last night because it's easy and fallish. We aren't allowed to have it before Halloween.

Finally, here are a couple shots of Lauren and Lil' Jon watching the trick or treaters. As you can imagine, puppy did NOT like people so close to the house or ringing the door bell. Bebe on the other hand was ecstatic. She waved and smiled to everyone.